7 Years Late
by shadowX101
Summary: 7 years ago Erik made a mistake that cost him the love of his life. 7 years later Erik tries to make amends. But is 7 years late really better than never? contains mpreg, is cherik, thorki, Tony/Steve, and others.
1. Chapter 1

yeah im back with another story...without having done anything to the others...I really am sorry...

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7 Years Late  
(Is Better Than Never)

By: Akari Zyne

Betaed by: Amaya Mizuno

Chapter 1  
The Beginning of the End Part 1

Looking back on it now, I should've known something was wrong. Erik and I met our freshman year of college in a 100 level physics class at Cambridge University. We were lab partners and were practically joined at the hip almost instantly. I was sixteen, Erik was eighteen, and we were both too stupid to see that we were hopelessly in love. Two years and a lot of jealous fits later, we finally got together, with a little help from my sister Raven… Okay a lot of help, but I'll save that story for another time.

I suppose the trouble really started the day Erik asked me to stay out of his mind. We had been together for two years and there hadn't been any signs. No pulling away from me, no hanging out with other people. In fact, we were cuddling on his couch when he suddenly demanded I stay out of his head. At first it hurt - after all, my telepathy is as a part of me as my dick - so I felt kind of rejected until I started thinking. Maybe he was finally planning on asking me to move in with him, or perhaps even thinking of proposing to me. The thought of either made me giddy so I didn't complain. If he wanted it to be a surprise then I wouldn't ruin it. In hindsight, it would have just been better if I had stayed heartbroken.

Two months passed by and still nothing to tip me off that my life was about to go to hell. The third month I got a call from my mother, and let's face it… my mother hates me; anytime she calls it means trouble for me. She had asked me to come back to the Westchester mansion. I fantasized that this meant that the abusive asshole I called a step-father had died, but I knew better. Kurt would never die that easily.

So I went back. Unfortunately, though it was no surprise, Kurt wasn't dead and to add to my growing list of problems, I was disinherited. Cut off, completely. I had some money saved up so I wasn't worried, but the hurt was still present. I was, however, relieved when I learned that Raven was still in the will.

Ah, Raven, my beautiful, blue adopted sister. I miss her from time to time, when I'm not too broken up and angry over her betrayal. But that's coming up, so I'll try to not get too ahead of myself.

Now where were we, ah yes, I remember. So I headed home, well back to Erik's anyway. When I arrived, I found Erik playing Call of Duty with Raven over Xbox connect. I don't particularly like the violence that the game symbolizes but whatever; I wasn't going to begrudge him his game. I went over to the couch and sat next to him. He leaned over without taking his eyes off the telly and kissed my cheek, so I thought he was listening. I started ranting about how cruel it was to cut me off right before my last semester and how ridiculous it would be to have to get a loan just for the one semester, though I was actually looking forward to getting a job and earning my own money to pay for it.

When I finished, he told me it'd be okay and that I didn't need them anyways. So I just sat there and watched him play until he shut the game off after they won. We went to bed and cuddled, but he didn't start anything, which really should have clued me in, but I wasn't really in the mood for sex. I thought nothing of it, feeling happy that Erik knew me so well. Or, at least that's what I had thought. A week later, my world shattered.

7 years earlier

Charles was running late. He was supposed to meet everyone at Sue's Country Kitchen for dinner at 5. It was 5:15. As he rounded the corner he saw his rather small group of friends still waiting and gave a sigh of relief. They were passing something around and he wondered what it was.

"Hey guys. Sorry I'm late. Class ran -." Charles trailed off as he took in their expressions: disbelief, anger, and hurt. "Is something wrong?" he asked, looking at the anger and hurt written on Erik's face.

"How could you Charles?!" Raven burst out, thoroughly startling him. He was about to ask what it was that he did when Alex started.

"I thought you were better than that Charles."  
"What?"

"Don't play dumb! We know all about it!" yelled Sean. Charles was becoming increasingly more confused.

"What did I do?"

"Enough Charles!" Erik yelled in frustration. "Even if you admitted it, we're through." Charles's heart stopped in his chest before cracking, Erik continued. "I'm sorry I'm not enough for you, but I refuse to be cheated on!" Erik flung what appeared to be a picture at him and started to walk away, everyone but Hank following. When Charles looked to Hank to ask what was going on, Raven yelled for him to follow. He did so rather reluctantly.

"Sorry Charles." Hank said as he left to follow the group. Charles felt so confused. He looked down at the cause of all the hurt, it was picture. A picture of him kissing a girl he'd never seen before which confused him immensely. Didn't they realize that he couldn't kiss someone he had never seen before? And why did Erik think Charles cheated on him? Didn't he know Charles better than that? Didn't they all know him better than that? Didn't Erik know that Charles loved him and only him? Wanted no one else but him? When he looked up though, everyone was already gone.

Charles didn't realize he was crying until he got back to his apartment. He felt so heartbroken and numb. He tried to call everyone only to get no answers so he tried texting them instead. He wanted to tell them the truth - that he didn't know the person in the picture; however, no one would respond. After an hour of trying, he stopped and decided to try again the next day. Unfortunately, the next day was even worse.

Charles's alarm went off at 7am and was immediately shut off. He hadn't slept that night. Getting out of bed, Charles heard someone knocking at the door. Hoping it was Erik, Charles bolted to the door. He felt his face fall when he came face to face with the building manager.

"I'm sorry sir but I'm here to inform you that your lease has been officially terminated. And, as requested by the building owner Mr. Marko, you have two days to move out. Thank you, have a nice day." Charles couldn't even reply. After standing in the doorway for what seemed to be an eternity but was only about two minutes, Charles walked back in and collapsed on the couch. He noticed his cell phone on the coffee table and picked it up. Nothing new, but he decided to give it another try. Still nobody answered, not even after he texted them about having to move out. He curled up on the couch and cried.

He felt so betrayed. His sister was supposed to take his side and she hadn't. Neither had his friends, not even Hank. He felt so abandoned and alone. When he was finally able to get a handle on his emotions, Charles called Will and Jim's Storage and Moving Company to set up his storage space and arranged for them to come by and pick up his stuff in two days, then he proceeded to start packing.

Two days passed quicker than Charles thought possible. The movers showed up bright and early on moving day and Charles gave them everything but a bag of clothes to take to the storage unit. Fortunately it was an already furnished apartment so the furniture stayed but Charles still had boxes upon boxes of books that were now on their way to the storage unit.

Still not having heard from anyone, Charles left his apartment and headed for the closest homeless shelter near campus, wanting to save what little money he had left for his last semester of school. Two weeks went by and still no word. It became increasingly colder out as Thanksgiving came and went but Charles didn't notice.

He was becoming progressively more nauseous in the mornings and he didn't know why. He didn't attempt to go to the doctor until after finals, and that was only when he started to actually throw up. At first he couldn't believe it even after the doctor told him that, while still rather rare, he wasn't the first male mutant to be pregnant and that he shouldn't worry too overly much but to still take it easy all the same. '_Since I'm only two and a half months along, I can still finish my last semester and graduate, can't I?' _He asked the doctor.

"So long as you don't have any labs, then yes, you can complete your last semester." Charles paled; all but one of the classes he needed to graduate had labs which meant that no, he wouldn't be able to finish his last semester. With a heavy heart he called Erik; even with the split he still deserved to know.

Unfortunately Erik didn't answer. He tried Raven, no answer. He called the others, but they didn't answer either. So he texted them instead, telling them he was pregnant. He finally got a response, but not the one he was hoping for.

Hank didn't reply. Charles couldn't really blame him, after all if Hank were to respond positively to Charles then it would make the already rocky relationship between him and Raven even rockier and he didn't want that. Raven, Alex, and Sean all texted back and called him a liar and pathetic. Erik… Erik actually called but Charles couldn't get a word in edgewise while Erik called him a liar and pathetic for thinking Erik would actually believe such a lie. To top it off, he called Charles "a dirty lying whore who needs to go fuck himself and leave everyone the fuck alone," before promptly hanging up without Charles so much as saying hello.

Charles was all but shattered. His mother disowned him, his sister and his friends abandoned him, the love of his life hated him, and he found out he couldn't finish his last semester and graduate. He cried the whole way back to the shelter; still more while packing his bag back up. As he was leaving the shelter he spotted a calendar hanging on the wall. December 25th was the next week, well happy fucking Christmas to him. All he wanted was nothing more than to get away.

His tears cease long enough to hail a taxi and tell the taxi to take him to the airport. Charles bought a ticket for the furthest place he could afford; which was, after having to pay for the storage unit, sadly, only New York City.

It only took Charles two hours to get to NYC and he would have cried the whole plane ride there had he not felt so very numb. He'd finally run out of tears, and while he would never get over Erik, he felt it was time to move on and start a new life. After all, it wasn't just his wellbeing he had to think about now.

When Charles disembarked from the plane he only had $1.03 left in his pocket and nothing left in his savings.

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so let me know what you think yea? =]


	2. The Beginning of the End Part 2

Chapter 2  
The Beginning of the End Part 2

To this day, I still regret it. I can pin point the exact moment I let my life turn into a living hell. I should have said something to him; I should have done something, anything when it started, but instead I kept it bottled up which cost me the love of my life.

I received the first cryptic letter about a week before classes started. Its only contents _"Don't__ believe him," printed on _the middle of the page. I looked at the envelope but there was no return address. I thought someone was merely playing a prank so I threw it away. However, things didn't stop there. I continued to receive letter after letter after letter. Each letter contained messages such as "_Don't believe him__,"__"H__e's lying,__"_and so on. I was confused, not knowing who or what the letters were pertaining to. I quite frankly wasn't that concerned until three weeks after I got the first letter.

At the time, I figured it would be like all the others but this one, this one was different. "He's cheating on you." Suddenly all the other letters made sense. But I still didn't believe them. That was until the pictures started coming.

At first it only showed Charles out with a couple other guys and a few girls. None of that was particularly incriminating, but it still hurt. With my trust in him shaken, I told him to stay out of my head. He looked hurt and confused at first but seemed to accept it nonetheless. When he withdrew from my head without a single complaint, I became suspicious but didn't bring it up.

Two months went by and no more letters came so I let the issue drop. The first weekend during the third month had Charles leaving for Westchester and returning in a huff. I couldn't quite make out what he was ranting about since I was busy trying to kill the other players in Call of Duty. From the bits and pieces I did pick up, I told him that he didn't need those assholes he called his family. This seemed to appease him. Another week passed by before everything fell apart.

I left to meet our group of friends at Sue's Country Kitchen for dinner. It wasn't too far so I decided to walk, stopping to check the mail on my way out. There was only one envelope; it was big with no return address, tipping me off right away. Figuring it was like all the others, but curious as to why this one happened to be bigger, I opened it. There were two prints of the same picture but what I saw on them made my heart stop. I tried to tell myself not to believe it; there was no way it could be true. But how could I not believe it with the evidence staring me straight in the face. Of course, as I'm prone to do, I reacted with anger.

When I got to the quaint little restaurant Raven, Hank, Alex, and Sean were already waiting outside. I was so angry and upset that when Raven asked what was wrong I didn't hesitate to show all of them the picture. They couldn't believe it at first either, but with the evidence right there they couldn't deny it. Hank was the only skeptic but in our mutual rage we all shut him down before he could even formulate a theory.

Charles was late which gave my anger time to simmer down. His lateness allowed me to come to the conclusion that I'd let him explain himself. However, that all changed when Charles actually showed up; my rage reigniting within seconds of seeing his form.

Raven was the first to explode, followed closely by Alex and Sean, but it was when he went to deny the affair that my anger spiked. In my rage of anger, I threw one of the pictures of him kissing some girl at his chest. I yelled at him, said we were through, and left. The others followed behind except for Hank, which Raven -god, did she have him on a short leash- immediately remedied.

Charles tried calling and texting, but I refused to answer. Two years. We had been together for two whole years. I was gonna ask him to move in with me. I was even beginning to imagine a future of just him and I. At the time, I was glad I hadn't. Now, though, thanks to the power of hindsight, I regret not asking when I had the chance.

Eventually Charles stopped for the night, but resumed again in the morning. I hadn't slept a wink so I decided to read the first text. He mentioned something about being evicted. I didn't care and I didn't answer.

I spent Thanksgiving at my apartment, with Raven and the others coming over for dinner. Mother called, I told her what had happened. She couldn't believe what had happened. She tried defending him, telling me that Charles wasn't that kind of person. I all but refused to listen, leaving the conversation with a simple "Please… Just drop it."

Finals came and went. I received a text from Charles for the first time in weeks claiming he was pregnant. To say I was livid would be an understatement. That night was not a good one for the metal in my apartment; I went on a massacre. I phoned him back, calling him out on how much of a pathetic little whore he was. I'm pretty sure it was made clear that I never wanted to hear from his lying ass ever again. There was no more contact after that.

Raven had confiscated Hank's phone so he couldn't talk to the "traitor." It confused me when one day Hank asked me for all the photos I had gotten in those letters. I wondered why but didn't ask, just handed them over.

A week later, two days before Christmas, Hank got everyone together. What he revealed horrified me. I don't remember much, but apparently I ran to the bathroom and threw up. One second I was staring at Hank's computer listening to him talk about how much time, work, and effort it had taken to find a person in the exact pose necessary who was also just the right height and the next second I was sitting on the bathroom floor while Raven wiped my face with a wash cloth. I would have taken the cloth from her had I not felt so shell-shocked.

I just… I couldn't believe it. The pictures… they were fakes. Every pose came from Facebook pictures of Charles and I. Hell, Hank said Charles and the girl were literally just Photo-shopped onto a picture of the Cambridge University library, making it look like they were kissing in front of the steps. The girl wasn't even in the US! Her profile said she was currently studying abroad and had been for two years. What hurt the most was that the position Charles was in came from my favorite picture. Of us. Together…

It was about six months after Charles and I got together, the whole crew had come over to my place for game night. We had just sat down to play 'Sour Apples to Apples' when I got a call telling me that my mother was in the hospital. I freaked out. I was on the complete other side of the Atlantic with no way for me to get to her! I was pacing and working myself up into a panic attack when Charles stepped forward. He suddenly pushed me onto the couch and cupped my face between his hands, foreheads nearly touching, and said to me, "Look at me Erik. Look only at me and breathe because everything is going to be alright." I realized in that moment that I loved Charles more than anything. Neither of us had realized Raven had taken a picture of that precious moment until one day she handed us each a frame with the print inside.

When I was able to get off the floor of Hank's bathroom without feeling nauseous, I tried calling Charles. All I got was a recording saying his phone had been disconnected. I thought back to the text about his eviction and instantly felt the panic rise in my chest. It must have shown clear as day on my face because Raven asked what was wrong. I could barely get my throat to work but somehow I managed to slip out that we needed to go to Charles's apartment.

When we arrived I knocked frantically on his door only to have some stranger answer. When asked, the person explained that they had just moved in. I didn't wait for them to finish; I raced straight to the building manager's door. He told me that Charles was ordered out of his apartment by Kurt Marko - the asshole he called his step-father- and that he didn't know Charles' whereabouts. I felt so heavy-hearted that words refused to leave my mouth, leaving me to just walk away.

I told myself that I'd find Charles at the beginning of the semester, apologizing and begging for forgiveness. The only problem, I couldn't find him. When I looked up his name, he wasn't registered for any classes. He was just gone, completely and utterly gone.

I -barely- managed to finish the semester and graduate without Charles. The night I got a job at Thorneycroft Engineering, I was so excited. I ran home and shouted out to Charles that I had got the job. The only response I was met with was silence. I cried that night. Sure, I got the job I had been dreaming of, but, without Charles by my side, it seemed worthless. I had lost the light of my life, _mein liebling, _and I had no one to blame but myself. If I hadn't disregarded what Charles had said about being pregnant; if I had remembered that he wasn't, in fact, lying about that, I would have tried harder to find him. As it was, I didn't find happiness again until 7 years later. Even then, he made me work for it.


End file.
